Hate-the-sin doctrine versus the homosexuality-is-a-sin principle

Okay, so I haven’t heaps of time to continue my research on the Alliance Church and it’s official doctrines. But, little by little, I seem to be soaking some of this stuff up. More importantly, I think, is that I haven’t had time to review the hate speech laws in Canada. So the hate speech laws are really on my radar to follow up about.

But, in the mean time I have been reflecting on this idea that we should hate the sin, not the sinner. I think this doctrine is often operationalized by religious folks as a kind of defence for their beliefs about folks that identify as gay, lesbian, homosexual, queer, trans, two-spirited or pansexual. But is it actually a defence of their views? What is the effect of this doctrine on the hate hypothesis?

The Catholics, for example, are making a big deal about loving people that have a tendency towards homosexual behaviour. But they condemn the behaviour. It’s a little bit like loving thieves and murderers.

One way to press on this issue, would be to substitute some terms for homosexuality into the arguments put forward by Alliance Church doctrine. I could try replacing “Jewish” for “homosexuality”, etc. and see what transpires. This could be informative.